Again another explanation is in order. Some of you still are confused...You know what they say "Say once to a human, twice to a donkey and three times to a rpg player." I only jest I assure you. :-)
Once again... as of today Ryan and I will be switching our Q&A hosting slots. For the time being Ryan will do the Weekends and I will do monday to friday.

I promised myself last weekend that I will no longer look at or listen to any Chrono Cross media. Other than the demo CC mp3 Square released (which I posted here) until I either play the demo or get the final game. But alas the temptations were too strong. I listened to the 6 songs that were in the CC demo. So as I write today's column I really can't help but discuss Chrono Cross again. Yes again! There are two songs in the demo that are remixes from the original Chrono Trigger, the Intro theme (Chrono Trigger Main theme) and the Overworld theme. While they sound very good, superb even, they don't come close to the demo Square released. The Overworld theme in particular will sound familiar, with one main distinction...It has the addition of an "Island drum" background beat to it. I still don't exactly how I feel about it, it just feels odd. My other complaint is the songs in the demo feel short, averaging about the high 1 minute playing time. In any event Mitsuda looks to have done a good job on this. How good the overall soundtrack is remains to be seen. Anyway on with the letters shall we?

Is it me or has Square started being nice to us all of a sudden? I am so happy about CT coming to the playstation except for the fact that they're adding some stuff. I liked it the way it was, but I'm not going to complain; even if they make Chrono's hair white or something. Is CCs music by Matsuda? That's all I can think of right now. Thanks for your time.

-Jw

JD:
First things first. The report came from Magicbox who supposedly got the report from an Asian site...blah...blah..blah. Since the validity of the story is yet to be known, the best bet is to just wait and see how the story pans out. That being said, Magicbox has had numerous of their stories, in time, pan out to be correct. Just for one moment let's assume the story is true. Square could really care less about us, in my opinion. The bottom line is profits. With the release of Chrono Cross, one really can't think otherwise, than Square is just trying to hitch on to the Chrono Cross hype. And in the end most of us will purchase it. I don't understand your minor complaint however. Adding a CG opening and ending would only add something cool to the original, rather than being any detriment to it.

Chrono Cross' music is by Mitsuda, yes.

JD, Hey. I just wanted to tell you how happy I am that Yasunori Mitsuda is back for Chrono Cross' music. I downloaded the mp3 [which is incredibly awesome], and realized how much it sounded like Xenogears Creid, the arranged version of Xenogears' soundtrack. I'm a tracker, and I can tell you how incredibly hard it is to get a vibrato with a synth sample. The violin sounded incredibly realistic, with a vibrato that sounded very lifelike. Can you tell me if Mr. Mitsuda is planning on using Redbook audio for the whole game, or will it be only the first and last songs of the game, like FF8? If you could answer this letter, I'd really appreciate it.

-kev-san

JD:
I agree the demo music Square released is awesome. As for any of the music being in Redbook, I have not seen any of that reported anywhere. Perhaps someone with the CC demo can find out, if of the songs in it are in Redbook?

Duuuuuude... I just got done listening to the Chrono Cross opening MP3, and I must say I enjoyed it. It has kind of an open-air gypsy feel to it. But then it hit me...an MP3, on RPGamer? I had no idea you guys stocked those things. How many more of those are you hiding from us? Will you be getting more? Ohboyohboyohboy... ^_^

-The well-paid slacker

JD:
Weeeell. I only uploaded the MP3 demo song of Chrono Cross for two reasons. 1) Square released it and 2) It was only a track sample which did free us of the legal crap. Does this change RPGamer's policy on MP3s? No, unless it is released by the given company or are company samples there won't be more MP3s posted. We aren't hidding stuff from you readers....hehe..or are we?

Hi there JD

Like so many RPGamers out there I bashed Chrono Cross (ya know , `cos the guy is ugly, the gal is skinny and there is no Crono). But when I heard that sweet, sweet opening song, I changed my mind! So to all you CC bashers out there, just listen to that song, and it will change your mind.
Oh a question.... Hmmmmmmmm, er... What is your hair color?

-Glenn "I too have invisible text" Hansen

JD:
Music is one of the key aspects in any RPG. Which is why I'm really so hyped about CC. Mitsuda has done this game justice, at least from the 7 songs I've heard.
My hair color? Red just like Chrono's! ....Ok maybe not. Blonde.

Aaron's Legend of Mana reader Impression

JD:
You readers asked for it, begged for it, whined for it. So here is Aaron's thorough, if not overly long Legend of Mana Impression. I linked to it since it would probably take up the space of 2 full columns. Thanks to Aaron for the cool info.

Hey, JD! I just wanted to ask.... do you think that all the new Square (or others) RPGs (and others) will be released for the PC? We already got FFVII and FFVIII is in the making for sure. What about Legend of Mana and Chrono Cross? Any others? Cheers!

-Gabriel Garc’a M‡rquez

JD:
Currently Square hasn't announced any such plans to further venture into the PC world. For now it's strictly FF VII/VIII. I wouldn't expect any other games any time soon either. Square is focusing on the PSX/PSX2 platform and should continue to focus on at most 2 platforms, since in my opinion, they really are spreading themselves too thin, as of late.

Satoshi is your favorite, and why? Is Satoshi your fav, or the erotically unrealistic DD-cup-wearing girls giving longing looks at you through your computer screen? Hm.... it just seems suspicious.

JD:
I was expecting letters of this sort after posting the Satoshi artwork a week ago. Satoshi is my favorite for one reason and one reason alone. Only he seems to be able to conquer character designs in both the Anime and the Videogame world. Take a look at some of his Langrisser work, which doesn't pervade the "unrealistic girls" you allude to. Not to mention I have no care for "anime girls in skimpy or no outfits." Simply his videogame designs are the most detailed and elegant I have seen. I judge on that and that alone.

I had a funny dream last night. I was walking somewhere for some reason. And as I was walking, I passed a group of three men talking. I saw that one of them was Bernie Stolar! I walked over to him and said, "Are you Bernie Stolar of Sega fame?" He replied yes. I immediately called over my grandfather who suddenly appeared out of nowhere. I then told my grandfather to take a picture. I jumped next to Stolar and Grampa took a polaroid picture. Stolar then said, "Uh, I have to go." and all three of the men quickly walked off. Suddenly I woke up. The stangest part is that when I woke up, in my hand I had a post-it note with passwords to the game Wargames Defcom 1 written on it. Strange. cordially,

-James -rabidsmil(e)y-

JD:
That is scary man. From a psychological standpoint I can say you either are harboring too much positive emotions towards Bernie or you're on the path to long needed psychological care. ;)

Onux was wrong, we did decide why we were gonna protest naked in from of Square in Hawaii. We were gonna do it until they start putting out better translations. About that him wanting to see me naked part....I'll just forget about that.

-Dark Kaiser (Everyone else is doing it, and I'm just as shameless as anyone else so.....www.crystallized.com/g6/kaiser.)

Y do peeple spel badly? I waz reeding yesturdays colum and saw many peeple rite porly. if that wasnt bad enuf they dont use punctuation in there sentences i mean whats up with that? its like they quit hi-school as soon as they lerned that englsh is more than "1 4m 4 h4x0r" or somthing. can u tel me Y peeple ar so bad at speling plz k thx

-TheFreak (Bad spelling and punctuation intentional)

JD:
Yeah sure, nice excuse. It is my distinct pleasure to award you the Idiot of the day award.